1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to coolers, such as insulated, portable, molded coolers with insulated walls, bottom and top, or to insulated containers having a removable top. More particularly, this invention relates to a readily attachable and detachable top for such coolers or containers to permit easy replacement of a top with another having a sports logo for a team of choice. Still more particularly, this invention relates to a readily removable and attachable attachment for a cooler top or side to display a team or sports logo of choice. Still further, this invention relates to sets of such cooler tops, having different types of indicia, for mating with a single cooler bottom, wherein a set of such tops comprises at least a pair of such tops sold as a set, with or without a single cooler bottom.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sports teams of most sports have a team logo or name by which they are identified, often fanatically, by fans of the sport or the team. Thus, it is well known to identify with the college entertainment services provided by the University of Arkansas xe2x80x9cRAZORBACKSxe2x80x9d or the University of Florida xe2x80x9cGATORSxe2x80x9d football teams, and with professional football entertainment services provided by the Dallas xe2x80x9cCOWBOYSxe2x80x9d and Tennessee xe2x80x9cTITANSxe2x80x9d football teams, by way of example. Moreover, some sports fans may schedule a local college football game to attend on a Saturday afternoon, and a professional football game at another accessible location on a Sunday afternoon, again by way of example. Cross attendance of one sport, such as football, with another, such as baseball, is also popular and possible.
Use of and licensing of team logos for fan identification is an immensely large business in the United States and worldwide. The name and logo of a particular team may appear on such items as jackets, jerseys, tee shirts, socks and virtually every item of clothing, school pamphlets and booklets, and on other items of interest to the avid sports fan. Such items are very suitable for personal purchase or for birthday, anniversary and holiday-gift giving as a result of excellent multi-media marketing by leagues and individual teams. Posters and labels, with a suitable adhesive such as permanent glue, are often used to be attached to another item to show allegiance to or support for a team of interest. License plates and license plate holders, in addition to decals, often display a team of popularity and interest.
On the other hand, insulated devices such containers or coolers are popular for sports fans. Containers or coolers for food and beverages can assume a wide variety of forms. One popular container design is a generally cylindrical type of fluid-tight container, having a removable top which is rotatably secured or removed from the container. One particularly popular cooler design is an insulated chest-shaped cooler with an insulated top, an insulated bottom, and pairs of opposed of insulated sides, in which the top may or may not be permanently attached to the bottom/sides arrangement. Such cooler chests may or may not have handles, either external or recessed, for transporting the coolers from one location to another. Another type of popular insulated container is a vacuum or THERMOS brand bottle having a vacuum, insulated portion and a top, such as a rotatable screw-on cap.
Sports fans bringing such containers or coolers to sports events of interest have insisted upon having an identification with their teams of choice. A simple but convenient way of showing team support or allegiance is by a decal attached to the container or cooler. Such decals, whether permanently a part of the food or beverage container or cooler, are in the form of planar labels, but are rarely easily removable. Thus, it is difficult, without attaching several planar decals or labels to the top or sides of the cooler chest or other container, to show multiple team allegiance with a single multi-use container or cooler.
Sports cooler tops may also have a three dimensional character, as representatively shown in Design U.S. Pat. No. Des. 369,524, showing a baseball hat cooler; U.S. Pat. No. Des. 369,946, showing a football helmet cooler, and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 378,562, showing a top having a portion of a baseball, or a football, or a golf ball, thus to identify the cooler with a sport of interest. All three of these design patents show a sports-related item with three-dimensional characteristics on the top of the cooler, while U.S. Pat. No. Des. 386,649 shows a non-sports example of an upraised cooler top design. On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 349,630 shows an ornamental design for a styrofoam ice chest where the sides of the cooler are together formed in the shape of a football helmet.
Heretofore, modifications to the planar top, or to the sides, for identification or allegiance to multiple sports or teams has not been considered for a single container or cooler, whether made from styrofoam or according to the more traditional insulated cooler. Thus, it is an aim of the invention to provide a number of alternative solutions to present a single cooler or container with a set of two or more readily exchangeable tops or sides, each representing a different team of interest, whether local, collegiate, or professional and differing sports, such as basketball or baseball or football.
It is thus an overall aim of this invention to provide at a point of sale a set of at least two structurally similar cooler tops having different logos or indicia sold as a set for use with a single cooler bottom, or such a set of at least two structurally similar cooler topes having such different logs or indicia sold with a single cooler bottom.
This invention generally relates to a method and apparatus for achieving the aims of the invention.
It is an overall feature of this invention to provide a set comprising at least two interchangeable portions of a cooler or container, such as alternative tops for the same cooler body or container body, each interchangeable portion having a different logo, so that the same cooler body or container body can have a first logo at one particular time, and a second logo at another time, upon replacement of that interchangeable portion of the cooler or container with one or another of the set. In a first aspect of this invention, interchangeable cooler tops are provided for a cooler body, while in a second aspect of the invention, mechanically interchangeable cooler tops are provided with a cooler body which permits easy and convenient exhangeable interchange of one cooler top with another from the set. Similarly, the alternative tops for the containers are drawn from a set of at least two interchangeable container tops having differing team logos. A typical example of the second aspect of the invention uses mortise and tenon arrangement at the hinge which has a fixed portion secured to the cooler. This latter embodiment thus changes the tops at the hinge for a secure connection to the cooler.
It is another feature of this invention to provide an attachment for an existing cooler or container to modify a planar top of the cooler or container. According to this feature of the invention, an attachment, having means for securing the attachment to the top of a cooler or container, is provided with a particular logo. The attachment is readily attachable or detachable from the cooler or container, so that the user, wanting to convert the cooler from logo A for team A or sport A to logo B for team B or sport B merely removes the first attachment and replaces it with a second attachment. A set of at least two attachments with a plurality of logos are envisioned to be readily available to the consumer/sports fan and conversion is contemplated as convenient and easy.
In another aspect of the invention, the attachment is readily attachable or detachable from the cooler or container by loop and hook fasteners, such as xe2x80x9cVELCROxe2x80x9d brand fasteners. In an alternative, the attachment may be by adhesive having sufficient strength to adhere the attachment to the cooler or container, but having insufficent strength to prevent its ready removal without defacing either the cooler top, or the attachment itself. According to this aspect of the invention, the attachment is preferably readily attachable and removable from the cooler top, but also may be readily attachable and removable from a side or an end of the cooler body.
In yet another aspect of the invention, the attachment is in the form of a thin molded, pressed, or cast member that is positioned in a guide on a top or side of the cooler. The thin molded or cast member is sufficiently flexible to be inserted in the guide on the cooler or container, or the guide may have set screws or other suitable means for removably securing and fastening the attachment to the cooler or container.
In still another embodiment of the invention, each alternative cooler top is provided with either an integral or a separable belt-like elastomeric downwardly extending member for enveloping an upper portion of the cooler itself, thus to secure the cooler top with the cooler body.
In yet a further aspect of the invention, an attachment device for insulating cooler devices comprises a structural member, and at least one affixation device. The structural member has predetermined indicia thereon, and the affixation devices are supportable on a portion of the structural member. The structural member and the affixation devices are so dimensioned as to releasably affix the structural member to a substantially planar portion of the insulating cooler device.
In still an additional aspect of the invention, a method of attaching predetermined indicia to an insulating cooler device is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of providing a structural member having the predetermined indicia thereon, applying a releasable affixation device to the structural member, and releasably affixing the structural member to a planar portion of the insulating cooler device using the releasable affixation device.
In yet an additional aspect of the invention, method of interchanging attachments, having predetermined indicia thereon, for an insulating cooler device is disclosed. The method comprising the steps of a) providing an insulating cooler device having a substantially planar portion, b) providing a plurality of interchangeable structural members, each interchangeable structural member having the predetermined indicia thereon, c) releasably affixing one of the plurality of interchangeable attachments to the substantially planar portion using the releasable affixation device for a first predetermined time period, d) removing the one interchangeable attachment from the substantially planar portion, and e) releasably affixing an other of the plurality of interchangeable attachments to the substantially planar portion for a second predetermined time period.
Still another feature of this invention relates to the concept of a point-of-sale set of such interchangeable cooler tops for use with a cooler bottom. The set may include a suitable packaging of such interchangeable cooler tops, or such cooler tops with a suitable common cooler bottom.
These and other objects and features of the invention will become more apparent from a review of the written description of the invention that follows, taken with the accompanying drawings.